Author Comments

Clockwords is a hectic word game set in Victorian London. You are a genius inventor who discovers plans for a mysterious machine that runs on the power of language. Then your lab is infiltrated by mechanical insects that have come to steal your secrets!

You must think and type quickly to fend off the invaders. To destroy the bugs, you need to collect powerful letters. Some letters can be combined to increase their power.

Rated 2.5 / 5 stars2009-10-23 06:03:38

I love this game. I hate what it did.

So, Clockwords is a great game - one of my favorite additions to NG over the last year. It's got great replay value; it's just really satisfying to blow up those mechanical spiders. As others have noted, the dictionary will occasionally not accept a legitimate word, and there are some words that it does accept that probably should be considered proper nouns . . . but those are minor quibbles.

My big complaint? I've been playing this game since it came out on NG a few weeks ago. It's taken me *ages* to build up a boiler full of gold and jade letters (what's a level-5 gold letter equal to in iron letters? something like a billion). And then I went to play yesterday and ALL OF MY PROGRESS WAS LOST. None of my letters were in the boiler, and the game didn't show any completed levels (even though I'd completed up to level 52 or so).

So, what happened? I wish I knew. Maybe it's a bug. Maybe the developer posted a new version that didn't like the old save data. Either way, it's a really crappy gaming experience to have that much work wiped out. It makes me not want to play the game any more, which is unfortunate - but I'm not going to put effort (even gaming effort) into something that takes away progress so capriciously.

Rated 5 / 5 stars2009-10-19 17:21:28

Intuitive, Rewarding, and Unique

I love literary and wordplay games, and this is no exception. First of all, I'd like to mention the charming story section of the game, which hooked me right away with the interesting premise and artwork. On the subject of the gameplay itself, it's fast-paced, but never fatiguing or smothering. The chamber system caters to any size vocabulary and the practice of firing off words, even according to specific stored letters is quick and intuitive enough to allow the player to fight back under pressure without frustration. And on the strategic front, there's even a bit of planning involved with building your letter repertoire or swapping letters in-game poker-style for a better hand. All things considered, this is a fantastic game - accessible to all, rewarding to play, varied and complex without being baffling or tedious, and overall a fun and intriguing experience. A+

Rated 2 / 5 stars2009-10-17 12:15:10

Interesting, but flawed

I wrote an automated program to play the game (screen cap + OCR + dictionary) I reached level 164 and the game showed no sign of becoming more difficult than my all-jade boiler could handle. With 100+ damage per word, 10+ words per minute, no bugs reached the second tier of the screen while I watched. However, it's hard to imagine a human playing at this level.

There are killer bugs: * upon return to the game, all letters replaced by "A". You can get your letters back by resetting, but then you have to combine them again.

* but the real killer is that I clicked "reset" then "no" and lost all my letters-- no letters in the boiler, or storage, or the transmuter -- now I seem to really be screwed.

Writing the AI to play the game was more fun and rewarding than playing the game as a human.

Rated 5 / 5 stars2009-10-14 08:24:28

WHEN DOES IT END?

OK, the game is great. Very cool style, original idea, practicing my typing, and spelling skills and all.. but seriously- when does it end?
I'm on level 98 and i can clearly see, there are atleast 120 levels... im scared, if there would be no ending.
Please tell me, I must know when this will be over?
10/10, 5/5